


Trace Amounts of Time Travel

by EpikRocket



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005), Portal, Portal (Video Game), Portal 2
Genre: Crossover, Doctor Who x Portal, Eventual Relationships, F/M, Portal x Doctor Who, crossover fic, more characters will be added later, please comment any ideas you might have!
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-22
Updated: 2018-11-01
Packaged: 2019-04-06 16:21:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 3,119
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14060769
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EpikRocket/pseuds/EpikRocket
Summary: The Doctor loved to travel. Planets, galaxies, timelines, you name it, he's been there. He travels on a daily basis, typically with a companion by his side and an artillery of tools in his bigger-on-the-inside pockets. One day, he received a distress call on his TARDIS and a message on his psychic paper to go with it. That was slightly odd, as usually the TARDIS just took him where he needed to go, whether he liked it or not. He traced it down, and was face to face with the one of the few places he had never been: Aperture Laboratories.





	1. Distress Call

**Author's Note:**

> shoutout to my friend Kate who wrote most of the summary and some of chapter 1. love ya you nerd.

The Doctor circled around the TARDIS console as Rose sat in the seat behind him, watching as his tan jacket twirled as he spun around, clumsily flipping switches. “So Doctor, where are we going to and eventually running from today?” Rose asked, with that signature tongue-against-the-teeth smile she always seemed to have on her face. “I have no idea. Rose, any ideas?” She shrugged. At that moment, the main screen above the console went to static. The Doctor frantically pulled out his sonic screwdriver. “Nonono it's ok I can fix this!! It's ok, it's ok!” He switched on his sonic screwdriver as the sapphire blue light buzzed to life. 

A bit of sonicing later, the static cleared up, presenting coordinates, a time, and a male voice started speaking: “This is an Aperture Science automated distress call. Please go to the shown coordinates, or contact this number if you believe there is a mistake,” followed by a phone number. Rose and The Doctor exchanged looks of confusion. The Doctor was reaching for the phone to call the number when he felt something. The psychic paper. “Hold on, getting a message on the psychic paper! Which is either entirely unrelated, or a VERY sophisticated distress call!”

“How'd you know that without looking at it?” Rose asked. 

“Well, since it's psychic paper, and it's psychically linked to me so that I can show people what I want but also what they want- look it's complicated!” The Doctor attempted to explain. 

“Right. Well, plug in the coordinates, let’s see where it takes us!” Rose exclaimed. 

“Right!” The Doctor began typing on the keyboard on the TARDIS console. 

“So, what is this ‘Aperture Science’ place?” Rose asked, curious and up for an adventure. 

“Well uh, That’s the thing. I’m not actually sure. The coordinates suggest it’s on Earth, but I’ve never heard of a place by that name, and certainly not one with the technology to transmit a distress call this sophisticated.” The Doctor started to respond. At that moment, however, the TARDIS shook as it spun through the vortex, and Rose and the Doctor were jolted sideways. They were on their way, though to what they weren’t sure.

The TARDIS finally began to calm down as it landed in a small town in Michigan, year 2056. Earth, of course. They were in a lobby-type room, although it was completely overgrown and overrun with greenery. “Doctor?” Rose spoke up after looking around for a bit. “Is there a way out of here?” The Doctor scoffed as he pointed to the TARDIS. 

“Um…. hello? Space and time machine? Sure it’s not great at short jumps but I mean… really?” Rose rolled her eyes. 

“I meant out of this room. This can’t be the only room of ‘Aperture Science’ can it?” She had a point. 

“Oh.” The Doctor looked at the floor. “I’m sure there must be. Let me just see…” he said as he pulled out his sonic screwdriver.

After scanning around for a bit, he found an old rusted panel under some vines. He moved the vines out of the way and soniced the circular door open. It opened to a once-white hallway, now brown and rusted with time. He gave Rose that look he gets when he’s about to get into some more exciting trouble. Rose rolled her eyes with a giggle and followed as The Doctor walked through the door.

They came to an elevator, broad and just as faded as the rest of the facility. They stepped into the elevator to see dusty padded walls and a flickering light. Rose instinctively grabbed onto the bars as the elevator creaked and the doors shut. “Doctor, what’s happening?”

“I don’t know.” The Doctor pulled out his sonic. “Maybe a motion or a heat sensor? From the looks of this place it’s amazing anything still works” he said, scanning the doors. The elevator creaked again and began moving down, rapidly. Rose could feel her stomach jump as they descended rapidly.


	2. Disinfection

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rose and the Doctor start enter Aperture Laboratories and get what they think is a taste of the madness of this place, when in reality it gets so much darker.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this story is moving kind of slowly.

Rose and the Doctor reached the bottom and stepped out of the elevator. Two doors slid open as an automated male voice echoed throughout the room. “Please step into the Aperture Science disinfection chambers.” The two stared at each other, and the message repeated as they stood still. The Doctor nodded, and stepped through one of the doors. It immediately closed behind him. Rose ran to the door and started banging on it. “Doctor? Doctor what happened?”

“It’s just a standard disinfection, Rose. Just take the other door.”

“The other what?”

“The other door!” The Doctor shouted a bit louder.

“The other door?”

“Yes, the other door!”

Rose nodded although he couldn’t see her. She stepped through the other door, and it shut tight behind her. Now that both of them were in, the disinfection began. “Engaging disinfection protocol. Please remove your clothing” said the automated voice. The Doctor sighed and began to strip, placing his clothes on a small surface. Once he placed them down, the wall opened and his clothes were taken inside the compartment. He pounded against the wall as it closed, realizing he left his sonic in the pocket of his coat. Great, the Doctor thought, now I’m sonic-less.

Rose on the other hand, was not having any of it. She sternly crossed her arms and kept her clothes on. A new message played in Rose’s room only. “Please remove your clothes or we will do it for you.” Rose stiffened up. The Doctor could faintly hear the speaker in Rose’s room. He knocked on the wall. “Rose! Do what it says!”

“No! I’m not going to strip because some robot says to!” Rose shouted back. At that moment, A light blue translucent screen activated above her and lowered down. It removed her clothes as it scanned over her. She huffed and covered her chest. Suddenly, in both their chambers, a white mist puffed through a pipe in the wall. The Doctor stretched out and embraced it while Rose yelped and flinched. A wind suddenly ran through both rooms and the mist fanned out. The Doctor stretched his arms out as the mist cleared from the room. Rose, on the other hand, held herself tight and yelped. Finally, another blue laser-light ran down both their bodies, scanning them. 

Once it was over, a panel opened from the ceiling and a giant claw came down, holding a piece of orange fabric. The Doctor and Rose both stepped closer and took it from the claw. Upon unfolding it, it appeared to be a sort of jumpsuit. Rose’s had a black sports bra folded into it, and the jumpsuits were bigger and smaller respectively, but that was really the only difference. They both put them on, and they fit perfectly. As soon as they both finished zipping them up, a door opened on the opposite end from which they’d entered.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please comment any plot ideas you have!! I could use all the help I can get!!!


	3. Doorways

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Doctor and Rose are introduced to portals and the relaxation vault for the first time.

They exited the rooms and saw each other. Rose immediately went in for a hug. The Doctor instinctively hugged back but remained vigilant. “Doctor… what just happened?” Rose asked breathlessly.

“I’m not sure yet. They took my sonic.” The Doctor had skepticism and a touch of disappointment and anger in his voice.

“Oh, wonderful.” Rose groaned, breaking away from the hug. She turned away from him and was met with an empty white room. Empty except for them and the two beds that looked more like pods. The voice came back on. “One person per Aperture Science Relaxation Cell, please,” said the voice. The Doctor gestured for Rose to go ahead, but she took his hand and stayed close to him instead. The Doctor squeezed her hand and began to walk forward.

Suddenly, a noise ripped through the room. Like a there was a tear in reality and for a moment, a sound like something being sucked into the vacuum of space. Along with the noise, the wall opened. But not just a panel or a door, the white material warped to create a door-sized hole, like someone had punched an opening through space and time itself. The hole was surrounded by what appeared to be a more opaque orange fire, except it didn’t give off much light, though maybe that was because of the bright lights washing everything out. The Doctor and Rose both jumped back. The Doctor slowly approached and waved his hand around it. “Doctor, be careful!” Rose yelped. The Doctor barely nodded in response.

The voice came back on. “This is an Aperture Science Quantum Tunnel, also known as a portal. The functionality of portals are simple. Thingy goes in, thingy comes out.” The Doctor tore his eyes away from the orange loop and looked up slightly. There was an almost identical hole behind a glass panel, this time of blue fire. Neither of them were sure that it was fire, but they didn’t know what else to call it. The Doctor had that look on his face, that thinking, processing look.

“A quantum tunnel? So if I’m not mistaken… this will either be really cool or _really_ stupid.” The Doctor muttered. He approached the orange ring and brought up his arm.

“Doctor what are you doing?” asked Rose. At that moment, the Doctor plunged his arm into the orange doorway. Rose gasped and looked away, but as it was only followed by a noise like a small whoosh of air, she looked up. The Doctor’s arm was half in the orange hole, and half out of the blue one behind the glass. The Doctor smiled, half in amazement and half in relief.

“Portals! They weren’t kidding!” The Doctor practically yelled. Rose let out a breath she didn’t realize she was holding. “So if I’m not mistaken…” The Doctor stepped through the portal and appeared behind the glass. “Doctor, wait!” Rose started to run forwards after him, but stopped dead in front of the orange portal. The Doctor looked behind him and realized the blue one had moved to a different room. He looked through the glass at Rose, and she stared back, visibly terrified. The blue portal had now appeared in a room directly adjacent, and identical to the one the Doctor was in.

The Doctor looked through the glass and saw the portal. “Go through!” He yelled, though his voice was muffled by the glass. Rose nodded and prepared to step through the portal. She mustered her courage, closed her eyes, and took a running start. She heard a whoosh and felt something in her ears like there was one window in a car open, and stopped running. When she opened her eyes, she was in the room. She looked behind her, and the portal was gone. Turning to the left, she saw the Doctor in the room next to her.

“Now what?” shouted Rose. “Do what it says, we’ll figure something out!” He yelled back. She nodded. The announcing voice came on in both of their little glass rooms. “Please enter the cryostasis relaxation pod. Your specimen will be processed, and we will begin testing.” Rose and The Doctor stared in fear at each other, then the Doctor nodded before laying down on the blueish-green bed-like pod. A glass panel started to close over him, but not slow enough for him to react in time to stop it. He pressed up against the glass as a gas-filled his pod. He sniffed in - anesthesia. His vision began to fade. He caught a glimpse of Rose pounding on the glass and yelling before passing out.

Rose slid down the wall, almost sobbing. She took a minute to gather herself and realized there was only one way to get to the Doctor from here. She laid herself down in the strange pod and let the glass close over her. She took a deep breath and let the anesthesia knock her unconscious.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really hope you enjoyed this. I know my writing isn't the best but I really like making stories. :)


	4. Walls

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rose and the Doctor are transported to where they were supposed to go along with their own testing tracks, but a glass wall won't stop them from sticking together.

The Doctor inhaled sharply as the door to his pod slid open. He rolled out onto the floor, still disoriented. Sitting up, he looked around. The dilapidation and overgrowth outside the window of his glass room - to be honest, it was more like a cage - matched the amount of overgrowth in the lobby when they first arrived, indicating not much time had passed. The voice clicked back on. 

“Hello, and welcome to the Aperture Science enrichment center. We are currently experiencing technical difficulties due to circumstances of potentially apocalyptic significance beyond our control. However, thanks to Emergency Testing Protocols, testing can continue. These pre-recorded messages will provide instructional and motivational support, so that science can still be done, even in the event of environmental, social, economic, or structural collapse. The portal will open and emergency testing will begin in three. Two. One”

The sound of a hole being ripped in space filled the room. It actually wasn’t an unpleasant sound. If he had to put the sound in writing, it’d be something like “bb _rRRWWOOOP_ ”. The Doctor furrowed his eyebrows and stepped through the portal. As he stepped through, he heard a _clunk_ and a _hiss_. He ran back through the portal, looking through the glass on all sides. A new room had just been transported right next to him.

* * *

 Rose gasped as she awoke. Moving her hand to rub her temple, she sat up. Her head was pounding. Or maybe that was something else? She stood up looked around. Her vision was still blurred, but she definitely saw the Doctor, jumping and pounding on the glass. She saw him motion to the wall and mouth _go forward_. She looked over to where he was pointing and saw a blue portal leading to another dilapidated white tiled room. As she stepped through, she looked to her left and there he was. Her Doctor. Behind a wall of glass.

They both immediately ran up to the glass. The Doctor held up one finger to say _hang on_ , and he looked around the room. He found a solid piece of scrap metal lying in the corner. He immediately picked it up and ran back to the glass. He mouthed and gestured to Rose _stand back_ , and she took a few steps out of the way. The Doctor held up the dense piece of metal and bashed it into the glass. It bounced off as if nothing happened. Again. Nothing happened. After about two more attempts, the glass finally began to crack. Within the next few hits, the glass wall shattered and the Doctor was able to step through into Rose’s hallway.

 Rose ran up to embrace him and he immediately took her in his arms.

“Doctor! I was so scared!” cried Rose.

“I know, I know, but we’re fine. See?” He smiled at her to emphasize that he was ok. “Just a little bit…” his smile faded “...lost.”

Rose nodded. “It’s ok, we’ve gotten out of worse before.” She held him tight. He gently placed a kiss on her head.

The Doctor sighed. “Let’s get going. Allons-y!” He held her hand tight and began running forward down the hallway. She yelped and giggled as she followed along.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry that it's kind of short, I'm just trying to be somewhat consistent. More to come eventually, I hope you're enjoying the fic!


	5. Fizzler

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rose and the Doctor begin their journey down Aperture's testing track and continue to be introduced to the strange gadgets among the facility.

The two were met by what seemed to be a door, stuck open with plants growing around the frame. The Doctor smiled at Rose and they walked through to, big surprise, another white tiled room. This one, however, had a cube in one corner and a giant red button in the opposite corner. The two scanned the room.

“Cube and button-based testing remains an important tool for science, even in a dire emergency. If cube and button-based testing caused this emergency, don't worry. The odds of this happening twice are very slim,” the announcer’s voice said as it buzzed back to life.

The Doctor was intrigued. “Ooh, a puzzle!”

“A puzzle? What, like Tetris?” asked Rose.

“More like uhh…” The Doctor struggled to find a suitable comparison that Rose would understand. “Zork!”

“Zork?” Rose looked at him, confused.

“No, little too young for that, like-like…” He snapped his fingers as he found a suitable answer. “Temples in the Legend of Zelda!”

“Ohh!” Rose finally understood. “So just… move the box onto the button and the door will open?”

“Ideally.” The Doctor hoped it didn’t do anything worse. He turned to the cube and picked it up. It was much lighter than he had expected. He smiled at Rose and dropped the cube on the big red button. The door promptly slid open. The Doctor turned to Rose and sang the jingle in Legend of Zelda when the door opens. The smug smile was wiped from his face when the voice came back.

“Please note the incandescent particle field across the exit. This Aperture Science Material Emancipation Grill will vaporize any unauthorized equipment that passes through it,” the voice rang through the overgrown room.

The two noticed something sheer and blue and looked like a forcefield. The Doctor raised an eyebrow and walked over to it, the strange boots clunking on the tiled floor. He found a bit of metal poking out of the wall and managed to pry it off. He tossed it into the blue field and it made a horrid noise as it disintegrated entirely.

“Right. That was test one. Let’s try something else…” the Doctor says, gathering leaves and vines from the cracks in the wall. He tossed the gathered flora through the blue field and it fell through, unharmed. “Interesting. Must only affect inorganic materials. So…” the Doctor said, slowly approaching the gently humming particle field. He held up his hand and gently touched it. It tingled a little bit but was otherwise harmless. He turned and smiled at Rose before he walked through it completely. Rose perked up as if to protest, but remained silent. 

“Harmless,” the Doctor remarked to Rose from the other side of the forcefield. Or, emancipation grill, rather. “But the question is, what is particle field technology doing on Earth in the 21st century?” The Doctor stared at it, missing his sonic screwdriver.

Rose slowly approached it and stepped through with great caution. She got chills as she stepped through, but was otherwise unharmed. “It’s got a really long name, the ‘Aperture Science Material Emancipation Grill’, doesn’t it? It just… fizzles things. It’s a fizzler.” Rose said, staring at it.

“Fizzler it is then!” the Doctor replied with a smile. “Now, let’s get going. The more time I spend here the more questions I have.”

“Onward it is then,” Rose replied. The Doctor smiled at her as the two walked down the stairs and the door shut behind them. They entered a room with an elevator, surrounded by screens portraying little cartoons. The Doctor chuckled at them and then stepped into the elevator. Rose stepped in beside him, and the elevator started to descend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't get to write often, but I'm having a lot of fun with this. I hope you enjoy it!


End file.
